Meshrano Jirga (Upper House of Parliament) members on Tuesday called on US President-elect Joe Biden to reconsider US policies on Afghanistan that were mostly instituted during outgoing President Donald Trump’s tenure. The senators said a review of policies would be in the interests of security in Afghanistan.

Pence said US forces mission in Afghanistan has been vital to the security of the American people. US Vice President Mike Pence in an address to soldiers who returned from Afghanistan said because of their “service in Afghanistan, there has not been another major terrorist attack on America in the intervening 19 years.”

The Taliban called on president-elect Joe Biden to honour a US agreement to withdraw all American forces from Afghanistan by May to secure intra-Afghan peace talks and end the two-decade war.

But security sources said that “at least 24 security force members” were killed in Taliban attacks in Kunduz. At least four security forces members and 15 Taliban were killed in clashes in the northern province of Kunduz on Monday night, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said in a statement.

The numbers show that at least 14 people were killed and 33 more wounded as a result of these attacks and acts of violence. At least nine provinces in Afghanistan have witnessed targeted attacks, explosions and violent criminal acts in the past 48 hours, according to the statistics received by TOLOnews.

In the southern province of Kandahar, Panjwai and Arghandab have witnessed recent battles between the Afghan security forces and the Taliban. Over 40 Afghan security force members have been killed in fighting with the Taliban over the past 24 hours, with the majority of casualties reported in volatile areas in Kunduz, Baghlan and Nimroz province.

Four Taliban assailants were killed after they stormed a vehicles repair workshop of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in southern Kandahar province on Saturday.

Some sources claim the Taliban are not allowing the National Food Program (NFP) to be implemented in the Jalrez district of central MaidanWardak province and Talak and Shahrak districts of Ghor province, a claim the rebels reject as baseless.

Prices of fuel, firewood, Russian gold and ghee increased during the outgoing week in Kabul, market sources said on Saturday. A worker of Hashimi fuel station in Taimani Square said the price of one litre of petrol rose from 36afs to 40afs and the same quantity of diesel from 38afs to 43afs.

Five Taliban have been killed in an airstrike in eastern Laghman province while an individual who planned attack on security forces arrested in eastern Nangarhar province, an official and a statement said on Sunday.